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Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles once helped her father, NFL broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, overcome alcoholism.
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Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles once helped her father, NFL broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, overcome alcoholism.

JD Vance is not the only one Trump ally helping a parent overcome addiction. The president’s next chief of staff, Susie Wiles, daughter of legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, is credited with helping her father overcome alcoholism.

Wiles was announced as Trump’s candidate chief of staff On Thursday evening, she became the first female chief of staff to the president in US history.

Summerall was an NFL champion kicker and lead color commentator for CBS alongside John Madden for more than two decades. However, throughout his broadcasting career, Summerall is considered an alcoholic. In her 2006 biography, she described an intervention and plea from her daughter Susie that made the difference.

In a letter read during the intervention, according to Summerall’s 2006 autobiography, Wiles said, “Dad, I’m embarrassed we share the same surname as we’ve been out in public together a few times lately.” Off the Air.”

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Summerall and Madden

CBS NFL commentator Pat Summerall (left) and analyst John Madden on air during an NFL Football game in 1986. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Summerall wrote that her daughter’s words inspired her to take steps to combat her addiction.

Summerall’s drinking problems increased when she was paired with Tom Brookshier at the beginning of her broadcasting career. According to SF Gate, the two played games together for six years and admitted to binge drinking together on the nights before games.

In a 1991 interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Summerall described an experience in which his drinking nearly caused him to bleed to death.

“I found myself bleeding to death and my life flashing before my eyes in strange blurs,” he said. “Doctors said if I had stayed in the emergency room 15 minutes longer I would have been history.”

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The same article described an incident in the 1990s in which Summerall vomited in an airplane bathroom with Madden after a game between the Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears.

“I got sick on the last leg and went to the plane’s toilet three times to throw up,” Summerall said. “I get hungover so often I’m an expert at pulling it up. But this time was different. I was vomiting blood.”

Summerall also admitted to using painkillers to deal with stomach problems caused by constant drinking.

“I thought everyone got up at 10 o’clock every morning and drank beer,” he said. “I continued to drink heavy alcohol on an empty stomach and took lots of pain pills for my football knees and back discomfort. Most days, I downed eight to 10 Advil plus other meds.”

New York Giants halfback Phil King (left), star kicker Pat Summerall (center) and quarterback Don Heinrich toast each other with drinks to celebrate their team's crush of Green Bay on Nov. 2 at the Lone Star Boat Club. Packers at Yankee Stadium on November 1, 20-3. Summer Summerall scored eight points on two field goals and two extra point kicks.

Halfback Phil King, left; star actor Pat Summerall, centre; New York Giants quarterback Don Heinrich toasted each other at the Lone Star Boat Club to celebrate their 20-3 victory over the Green Bay Packers at Yankee Stadium. (Getty Images)

Summerall eventually overcame addiction thanks to Wiles’ intervention and Christianity.

“My thirst for alcohol was replaced by a thirst for faith and knowledge of God. At the Betty Ford treatment center, I began reading the Bible regularly and it became a part of my daily life,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Years before helping his father overcome alcoholism, Wiles began his political career as an assistant to one of Summerall’s former teammates.

In 1979, he was hired as an assistant to U.S. Representative Jack Kemp, Summerall’s former teammate on the New York Giants.

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Wiles gained a reputation for telling harsh truths to powerful men in politics.

Wiles serves as a senior advisor to Trump and campaign co-chairman alongside Chris LaCivita.

A longtime Florida resident and Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020, Wiles’ decades-long political career dates back to his work as a campaign planner for former President Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid.

Between presidential cycles, Wiles helped Ron DeSantis in his 2018 bid for governor. Wiles also ran Rick Scott’s 2010 Florida gubernatorial campaign and briefly served as manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.

Trump and Wiles

Republican presidential candidate former President Trump attends a game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets with senior campaign advisor Susie Wiles on October 20, 2024 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Evan Vucci/Pool/Getty Images)

During the victory celebrations West Palm Beach, FloridaTrump specifically thanked Wiles for his important role in the campaign.

“Let me also express my great gratitude to Susie (Wiles) and Chris (LaCivita) for the work you’re doing. Susie, come on, Susie,” he said. “Susie likes to stay in the background, let me tell you this. She’s the ice baby. We call her the ice baby. Susie likes to stay in the background. She’s not in the background.”

Vice President-elect Vance also helped his mother overcome addictions to alcohol and drugs such as heroin, which was the subject of Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” and a movie of the same name.

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